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THE retirement of "Mr Cricket", Michael Hussey, will leave a massive hole in the batting which could come back to haunt Australia in the next Ashes series.

That's the opinion of former Australian paceman Craig McDermott, who was at Harrup Park yesterday for a junior coaching clinic.

McDermott said Australia would field a side capable of winning the Ashes in England, but he was concerned that our batting could be tested against the swinging ball, particularly with the loss of Hussey.

"He has left a massive hole in the batting in my opinion," he said.

"It will be interesting to see who can come anywhere near close to filling his boots.

"In the one-dayers so far, we've struggled without him and also in the T20s.

"He's the best No. 6 and the best finisher in one-day and T20 in the world, so he leaves a massive hole for us."

He said while Australia beat Sir Lanka in a three-Test series at home, they could struggle in the forthcoming tour of India.

"They (Sri Lanka) didn't have a very good bowling attack in my opinion," McDermott said. "They lacked penetration, so it will be interesting to see what happens in India. India in India will be hard to deal with."

McDermott, who was the mainstay of the Australian pace attack in the early 80s, said the struggled with the Australian selectors' rest and rotation policy.

"I always liked to play cricket; I didn't like to be rested so it's a bit difficult to fathom," he said.

"One that I could not fathom was resting (Peter) Siddle and (Ben) Hilfenhaus in Perth against South Africa when we were trying to become the best Test nation in the world.

"We lost that series so it was a difficult one to understand.

"Another was resting Mitchell Starc for the Boxing Day Test.

"Even though we won that one, you spend your life as a cricketer wanting to play in a Boxing Day Test and you get rested, so you'd wonder, why?

"In my day if you didn't play, you didn't get paid, so it's a different world. In these days you get rested you still get paid for that game, so maybe it's a different attitude nowdays."